“I might want to coach again, I don’t know,” Riley, 65, said Monday. “If some free agent were to say, `I will come here but you must do this,’ well, if that happens that day, then I might have to give it some thought.’

That’s Eric Spoelstra you see looking over his shoulder. The current Heat coach — who is doing a quality job — just realized that if he does his job really well and gets the team moving toward an NBA title, he’s going to get tossed aside like so much garbage

It happened to Stan Van Gundy.

“I feel bad for Erik, knowing what will happen now, an offseason of speculation on whether or not Pat will coach,” Van Gundy said before Game 1 of the Magic-Hawks series. “It will make it tough on [Spoelstra].”

Good thing Spoelstra and Van Gundy are tight, because we all need someone to talk to who can relate to what we are going though. And Van Gundy has been there – Riley tossed him aside when it was clear that the Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal Heat could win a title.

Riley has coaching in his blood, he’s always going to think he can step back on the bench, even when he’s too old or knows he shouldn’t. And he shouldn’t. Just to be fair to Spoelstra, if nothing else.